January 04, 2008

We ran till the end of the road and finally found an autorickshaw. We told the driver in Hindi that we had lost the bag and need to chase the bus. When he didn't understand, I enacted the same to him as I spoke in Telugu. I showed him the bag and said that we forgot the bag in the bus and motioned my hand as if to show that the bus had left and we need to chase it. All this explanation lasted for a minute and the next minute we were in his auto racing in the 5E route (he said he knew the route) as he tried to show off his driving skills. After some time, I felt as if he was just running the auto all over the city just to make money. I might have asked him nearly three or four times if he really knew the route.

He stopped the auto at the intersection of three roads and said that the bus will have to pass through this junction and that there's no way it could have already left. Actually, what I understood from his Tamil conversation was that the road is like a rectangle, of which we had covered one side and came to a vertex and the bus had to travel the remaining three sides and come to that vertex (junction). So, logically we should have arrived first. He also said that if there was any problem we can go to the Vadapalani depot, which was the last stop and collect the bag.

We waited for the bus for nearly 20 mins. and still there was no sign of it. All the other auto drivers and people from a nearby tea-stall started discussing and consoling us. The tension in the air was mounting and my pulse was building at a fast pace. I asked my cousin to wait there with the remaining crowd, while I went with the auto driver in the opposite direction. We started reading every bus number that came in our way. After 5 mins., we saw the 5E bus in the middle of the main road. The driver slowed down his auto, butI didn't even wait for him to stop it. I jumped out and ran towards the bus and stood in the middle of the busy road waving at the bus driver asking him to stop the bus.

Stop!!!

He gave me a puzzled look as I walked briskly towards the door. I started looking for the lady through the windows. It was a great relief to see her sitting by the side of the window, holding my bag.

My bag...

She handed it over to me with a broad smile. I felt as if God himself was smiling at me. I checked the bag to see if the cam was still there, and yes it was there. We took the same auto and went to AshokNagar to an Uncle's place. We paid the auto-driver a hefty 200 bucks and thanked him.

The fun does not end here.

After spending some time at their house, we started for Koyembedu bus depot, where we were supposed to catch our bus back to Hyderabad. The auto driver whose auto we took, didn't know where exactly to drop us. He took us to the wrong bus stand which was nearly half-a-kilometre away from this place. We came on the road and asked a few people about the departure point of APSRTC buses and were shown a long road which leads to the actual bus-depot. My watch showed 7:54p.M. and the bus was at 8:00P.M. We had only 6mins. to catch the bus and that too we didn't know the route. We looked at each other.

Run!!! again....

We ran madly in that direction, puffing and panting. Were it any Asian or Olympic games, we would have definitely won a silver/bronze if not gold. :D.

2mins. were left and we were still searching for the 2020 service number. We asked a bus conductor about the APSRTC bay location and he pointed to the far end of the bay we were standing in.

Run... (What's happening???)

We ran as if it were the last day of our lives and as if we were asked to run to save ourselves - The more we ran, the more our life-span would increase in minutes!!! :-P We saw a bus that had just started and showed our ticket to its conductor.

Me: Number 2020 (still gasping for breath)Him: This is 2020. And we are just leaving.Me: Thank God!!!!!!!!!!!!Him: You should have come early. What if we had already left?

(Now, that's what I call it- Free advice!!!) :D

We were so tired and so terribly out of breath that we didn't even feel like saying anything to him. We then bought some bread and biscuits, that could make up for our dinner, got into the bus and had a hearty laughter.